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The mystery diplomat at the heart of Mac Harb's case

Who is Magdalene Teo, the Brunei diplomat mentioned in the allegations facing Mac Harb, and what is her relationship to the embattled retired senator?

Former senator Mac Harb is pictured with Magdalene Teo, Brunei's former high commissioner to Canada, at the Brunei National Day celebrations at Ottawa's Chateu Laurier hotel in February, 2007. Teo is now ambassador to China. Her name is mentioned in documents in the RCMP's investigation of Harb. (Sam Garcia / Embassy Newspapers)

One of the most enigmatic figures in the RCMP’s ongoing investigation into the Senate scandal, the former high commissioner to Canada is a diplomat from the oil-rich sultanate in Southeast Asia who rose through the ranks over the past three decades to one of its top foreign postings.

After tours in Tokyo, London and Ottawa, she is now Brunei’s ambassador to China, a plum post for the 57-year-old who appears to have made little mark on the diplomatic social scene in Ottawa.

The RCMP probe has not yet led to formal charges, but it is expected to be back in the headlines with the return of Parliament next week.

The Mounties mention Teo multiple times in documents sworn in an Ottawa courthouse related to the investigation of retired ex-Liberal Senator Mac Harb, one of four senators facing allegations of fraud and breach of trust.

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None of the Mounties’ suspicions — outlined in affidavits — have been tested, let alone proven, in court.

Still Teo appears key to any defence Mac Harb may be required to mount.

It’s not clear when the two first met. According to a report in Ottawa’s Embassy Magazine, Teo first came to the capital in 1995. Back then, Harb was MP for Ottawa Centre and parliamentary secretary for international trade.

Teo left Ottawa in 1998, only to return in 2005 as Brunei’s high commissioner, or ambassador, to Canada. By then, Harb was a senator, named by former prime minister Jean Chrétien.

Teo and Harb’s relationship remains unclear even to the RCMP. The mystery diplomat refuses to speak to investigators and provided only a few answers to police by email in July. That’s when she said she and Harb share a “personal friendship” not tied to business or their professional lives.

Parts of the Teo mystery unravel in Cpl. Greg Horton’s sworn affidavit to obtain documents in the Harb investigation.

In a curious series of transactions, investigators say Harb took out a $177,000 mortgage loan in 2007 against a Cobden, Ont., house he bought in 2003 after becoming a senator. He claimed Cobden as his primary residence to support claims for expenses related to commuting to work and living at a secondary residence in Ottawa. But two hours after getting that mortgage, he transferred 99.99 per cent ownership of the Cobden property to his friend from Brunei.

According to the affidavit, Teo said Harb covered the mortgage payments and operating costs as “rent” between 2007 and 2011; that their arrangement was all legally documented. The RCMP say the house was continually under renovation or construction, uninhabitable and apparently empty most of the time. “Without further details, this explanation lacks credibility,” says Cpl. Horton.

In 2010, Harb declared the Cobden home as a solely-owned asset to back another mortgage loan for different property he bought in Westmeath, also outside the national capital region. RBC officials told RCMP Harb never advised them Teo was the main owner of the Cobden property.

In fact, Cobden and Westmeath were among several properties Harb either owned or rented over the past 25 years, including three residences in Ottawa, and, according to one statement cited by investigators, a cottage in Quebec.

The Star has also learned of a property in Lake Worth, Fla., owned by a Mac Harb from June 2010 to August 2011 — a rental property with three units advertised as bringing in $2,100 a month, according to Florida records.

When Harb finally sold the Cobden property in 2011, he told a cleaner, a real estate agent and the purchaser that it was because his wife and kids did not like the area.

RCMP cite a 2007 email from an insurance brokerage employee Marg Durack to another firm that insured the Cobden residence, apologizing for Harb missing a scheduled inspection. She advised amending his insurance policy to add Magdalene Teo as an absentee homeowner because her name was “now on the deed with Harb,” the RCMP Information to Obtain production order (ITO) reads. “She speculated that she (Teo) may be Harb’s future wife.”

But Horton writes: “the investigation to date has not identified a wife of Harb. He does have children, and on at least one occasion a neighbour saw a woman and two children at the property, but there is no information that they actually lived at the residence.”

The RCMP have been unable to contact Teo since her first terse emailed reply to their queries. The Department of Foreign Affairs has been asked to help reach her.

But while she refuses to talk to Canadian investigators, Teo has embraced the life of a Beijing diplomat.

In 2008, her credentials were accepted by former Chinese President Hu Jintao. The China Daily reports she was named the “player with most potential” in a 2008 tai chi competition among bureaucrats. In another interview, she extolled the virtues of traditional Chinese medicine for pain in her back and legs.

Apparently fluent in four languages, she is on a mission to increase her home country’s trade in the region.

She stickhandles state visits by Brunei's leaders and was one of 52 citizens honoured by the sultan with an honorary title in 2012, according to a Brunei media report.

The Star attempted to reach Teo multiple times, by email and in person at the Brunei embassy in Beijing. An official said Teo was out of the country. Emailed requests to the embassy were not returned.

Harb withdrew a legal challenge of the senate’s audit of his bills, borrowed money to repay more than $230,000 and abruptly retired in August, eligible for a pension. But questions linger. However, Harb refused to comment for this story through his former lawyer Paul Champ who remains in touch with the former Liberal senator, and his current lawyer Sean May has not returned the Star’s calls.

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